JGSLA 2010: Saturday, July 10

Would you believe that Tracing the Tribe was so busy today that I forgot it was our fifth blogoversary. I was reminded of this happy event when Thomas MacEntee of Geneabloggers.com arrived.

Today became more frenetic as the hours went by and more attendees arrived.

From left, IAJGS president Michael Goldstein (Israel), secretary Joel Spector (New Jersey), board members Jackye Sullins (California) and Jan Meisels Allen (California) with vice president Michael Brenner (Nevada).

Breakfast is the most important part of the day - conference-goers are usually too busy to eat lunch - and I was joined by Howie Morris of the JGS of Greater Boston, who is part of our International Jewish Genealogy Month committee. Conference co-chair Pam Weisberger and just-arrived Wolf-Erich Eckstein of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien (Jewish Community Archives, Vienna, Austria) later came over to our table. I asked Wolf about Sephardic records in Vienna. He said that some 10 years of marriage records are missing, from about 1850-60, and no one knows why.

The breakfast buffet at the hotel's LA Market was tempting, complete with French toast, pancakes, waffles, fresh fruit, pastries and more. Some nice touches: genuine maple syrup is served in small warmed bottles, and steamed milk for coffee. Very nice!

Doris Loeb Nabel (Connecticut), who heads up the Mac-users group (gen-mac_users-schmozzers@yahoogroups.com, for more information) walked by not much later.

Pam had mentioned that an interesting display was being set up at the Platinum Ballroom, near the resource room, so I wandered up there and took a few shots of the traveling exhibit - Generations - which illustrates how four Holocaust survivor families reflect on the challenges they have inherited.

This hotel is BIG. There is a bridge from one part of the conference center to the other. Seating was non-existent on my first round, but many seating areas were ready for attendees only a few hours later.

The Internet connection, free for conference attendees, is excellent wired or wireless - to be expected in a brand-new facility.

Among the people greeted today: conference co-chair Sandy Malek (California), Renee Steinig (New York), Judy Simon (New York), Steve and Anita Morse (San Francisco), and so many more.

I also participated in the annual rite of conference bag stuffing this afternoon. See the finished bags (photo left).

Daniel Horowitz (Israel), Thomas MacEntee (Illinois) and I enjoyed a delicious dinner at Trader Vic's down the street. At an outdoor table were Warren and Debra Blatt (California) and Michael Tobias and his family (Scotland).

Back at the hotel, attendees began lining up at 9.15pm to pre-register. The long line moved quickly and I was soon back in my room, blogging about today's experiences, going over my blogging presentation tomorrow and reading through the conference materials.

More tomorrow on the major events of the conference's opening day: klezmer concerts, the Market Square, sessions for beginners, films and so much more.

New technology helps preserve memory

Family historians and genealogists are often obsessed about preserving the memories of our ancestral homelands. Many have created websites or webpages dedicated to our ancestors' "home towns."

A good session on just this topic was presented at the recent AJL conference, in Seattle, by Greek-born Amalia Levi of the University of Maryland and the Department of Jewish Studies. Her session focused on reclaiming the Sephardic heartland of Balkan Jews using Web 2.0 and social media.

The Balkans include Yugoslavia, Sarajevo, Salonika, Istanbul and other locations. Jews have been there since the 1492 Expulsion. For many locations, only memory is left. Moving borders, wars and natural disasters destroyed much. In just one example, the pre-war Greek Jewish community numbered some 100,000; post-war, 7,000.

The great 1917 fire in Salonika burned 32% of archives, 16 of 23 synagogues, and most printing houses. In Sarajevo, the Oriental Institute lost some 500 manuscripts during the 1992 war.

Thus, the heartland is mostly in memory only as the Jewish community in those places dies out. Archival materials have been disbursed to Israel, North America, Latin America, Europe or held in private hands.

Of course, another problem is the diversity of languages and alphabets in which these records were compiled. At one point they were in Ladino in Hebrew alphabet, then Ladino in Roman alphabet and today in secular languages.

Says Amalia, there is an "urgency" to re-invent these archives. Researchers need to be pro-active and search for materials, to look for them. They must raise awareness of the problems and also educate what she calls "citizen archivists." [TTT: The Jewish genealogy community has many dedicated individuals who are certainly eligible for that designation!]

Technology represents a collaboration of governments and professionals, to promote searchability beyond written texts, and to seek out and generate contributions. Researchers must consider their communities in terms of lifestyle, oral history, and artifacts and to recreate community histories, after the fact.

The web offers an alternative to geographical history, encourages interdependence and identity, while online digital projects, Amalia said, help researchers to "know it, remember it, and want to present it."

A number of examples were demonstrated. Tracing the Tribe was happy to see Amalia use Steve Lasky's wonderful cyberspace Museum of Family History, well-known by many Jewish genealogists, as one of her first examples. She especially pointed out his Yiddish World exhibit.

She also mentioned sites for the Turkish State Archives, AKA Kurdistan and the extensive Library of Congress online collections.

Web 2.0 projects can use social media to raise awareness beyond specific borders. It can present history, provide historical and genealogical content, encourage new identity, offer cultural and linguistic diversity, bear witness and resist political pressure.

Online archives enable participation, enhance accessibility, are fluid and not only physical, offer a space for user-generated content and more. The online site provides place, platform, people and content.

With active "citizen archivists," says Amalia, there are benefits. Although much history has been lost, lay people can contribute knowledge and memories. It is also a solution to natural disasters or the impact of political regimes.

Other issues were discussed: Whose voice is represented in an online archive? What is online today? In the future, how will we handle accessibility, integration, definition and legibility?

Other Web 2.0 issues include the digital presence, logistics, privacy issues, sensitivity to cultural norms. When dealing with records, the researcher must understand the record components. She said the questions to be asked concern whether the item is a record, what's the evidence, is it authentic, is it appropriate? The digital divide, keeping users interested in contributing, linguistic issues and sustainability were also on her agenda.

There was considerable food for thought in this program.

[TTT recommends that the JGS of Greater Washington, host of the 31st IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy (DC 2011) should consider the well-spoken, animated Amalia Levi to present at next August's conference.]

JGSLA 2010: Friday afternoon

The new JW Marriott at LA Live is a huge property.

Public area furnishings are spare; the lobby features couches with pillows set in alcoves along the far wall, while modern seating is near the check-in area.

Room

The guestrooms are large; our color scheme seems to be beige and turquoise. Lighting seems fine with wall lamps and goose neck reading lights. There's a full-length mirror on an interior closet door. The bathroom is spacious with excellent lighting. There's a huge flat TV monitor, and hook-ins for computers and other devices on the side of the desk.

Adequate closets, many more shelves and drawers than normal, and a room safe large enough for the largest laptop.

Surroundings

I haven't been in downtown Los Angeles for more than 20 years, and the change has been substantial. Back then, you wouldn't want to walk these streets after dark. Today, there are new buildings - commercial and residential - and restaurants featuring sidewalk seating.

People

The first genners I saw were Roni Seibel Liebowitz and her husband Jerry (New York). I've said hello to Stan Diamond and his wife (Montreal), Herb Huebscher and his wife (New York), actress Miriam Margolyes (UK, of "Harry Potter" fame), and saw Arthur Kurzweil - the genealogist-in-residence - entering the kosher Shabbat dinner down the hall.

One of my roommates, Jonina Duker (Washington DC area) is already here and we grabbed a quick dinner at a Persian cafe a few blocks away. She's been looking around the hotel and reported on the outdoor rooftop pool and tempting whirlpool.

My schedule already includes two meetings tomorrow (breakfast and late afternoon).

I'm trying to get more of the Seattle sessions into posts before this conference completely takes over my life for the rest of the week.

More tomorrow!

Seattle: What's in a name?

Marlene Schiffman of Yeshiva University provided an interesting session at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference on the historical impact of modern governments on Jewish names.

Focusing on Ashkenazi names, she covered the concept of "legibility," (a better term might be "visibility") or the identifying of a person, essential to the modern state. The phrase "name it - organize it" summed up the concept.

In 1843 Paris, other modern organizational tools were also used, involving language, uniform codes, registration, surnames, legal issues and taxes. "The object was to enumerate, register or conscript," said Schiffman, who stressed that this was not so much for personal identity but for state control. Thus, Personal surnames became important.

In Austria, Jews were given more freedom in the late 18th century and were also subject to the draft. They were required to obtain surnames from a list of German names, and even to choose given names from a list. While this was hailed by secular Jews, others considered it a conspiracy. Jews were integrated into the population.

In 1804, in multicultural Russia, a surname law was passed, even though Russian Jews tried to remain invisible to avoid the draft. As many genealogists are aware, many brothers in the same family often adopted different family names as another way of remaining "illegible."

In 1836, the Crown Rabbinate began keeping registers. In my own experience, the seven microfilm rolls of registers kept by the Mogilev (Belarus) crown rabbi have been invaluable research tools. Crown rabbis were later replaced with state rabbis, and by the 1850s, Jews and others were no longer invisible.

According to Alexander Beider, she added, there is no extant direct testimony of this or lists of surnames, there are evident naming patterns with Jews. For example, in Belarus, many names end in -in (Sorkin, Dvorkin, Belkin), deriving from female names (Sora, Dvora, Bella).

In 1857 Russia, Jews couldn't change their surnames. After they had finished their term of army service, they could take their godfather's name if they converted.

In Poland, Jews were assigned surnames at various times from 1787-1807. In 1821, when Poland was under Russian control, they handed out "certificates of names," which had to be carried and used for all civil or legal transactions. By 1824, most Jews had names.

In 1808, Napoleon forbid toponyms (those indicating a geographical location). Names from a list were adopted unless the name in question had already been used for a long time.

In Austria and Galicia, many names were pejorative or negative, with stories describing blackmail and bribes for a better name. The King of Poland decreed that each family was to have "a unique name" - unfortunately, it meant that six brothers may have required six different surnames. In 1787, names selected had to be approved.

Governments believed that standardized, permanent surnames would lead to greater interaction, would be more useful and help administration, track criminals and refugees. It was easy to identify Jewish names.

In Prussia and Germany, 1821 saw the acquiring of permanent names and citizenship for Jews. But by 1938, they could no longer adopt "Aryan" names. They couldn't change their surnames, had to return to non-German names, and also were required to add Sara or Israel to their given names, as identifiers.

Jewish names, said Schiffman, became Jewish "branding" in 1941, with the introduction of the yellow patch and tattooed numbers.

In the US, it was very easy to change a surname. Many immigrants did that as soon as they left Ellis Island, thus obscuring their origins.

The session conclusion was that modern governments needed to accelerate the control of population assets. When the naming process was complete, the government could see a specific group as a whole.

An interesting session, to be sure.

JewishGen: ShtetLink pages updated

The creators and webmasters of ShtetLinks at JewishGen strive to preserve the memory of their ancestral towns and villages.

An update sent by Susana Leistner Bloch indicated the following new and updated links:

Here are the new ones:

-- Belozerka, Ukraine
-- Dzialoszyn (Zaloshin), Poland
-- Eger (Erlau), Hungary
-- Mattersburg (Nagymarton,Mattersdorf) , Austria
-- Osjaków (Shakev), Poland
-- Volodymyrets (Vladimirets), Ukraine
-- Wloclawek (Vloatzlavek, Leslau)
-- Zhuravno (Zurawno, Zuravna) (G)

Some shtetlpages were created by individuals who can no longer maintain them. Those sites are considered "orphaned" and are available for "adoption." Here they are:

-- Borisov, Belarus
-- Craiova (Belkiralymezo, Canalu) / Dolj County, Romania
-- Kamiensk (Kaminsk), Poland
-- Krnov (Jaegerndorf), Czech Republic
-- Lask, Poland
-- Rozdil (Rozdol), Ukraine

Pages recently updated:

-- Berdichev/Berdychiv, Ukraine
-- Bodrogkeresztur (Keresztur)
-- Podgaytsy (Podhajce) (G)
-- Radom, Poland
-- Yurovshchina (Labun)

If you wish to create a ShtetLinks webpage for your ancestral shtetl or adopt an existing "orphaned" shtetlpage, contact the project.

There are even people to help you creat a webpage for your ancestral home. Contact Susana Leistner Bloch for more information.

Footnote.com: Holocaust Collection free through July 19

Tracing the Tribe has previously noted that our Footnote.com friends are making their Holocaust Collection free through July 19.

This is in honor of the 30th IAJGS International Conference of Jewish Genealogy, which begins on Sunday, July 11, and for all those researching their Jewish ancestors, regardless of whether or not they are attending the week-long Los Angeles event.

With so many beginning researchers at the event, it is likely that some will realize for the first time that their families were caught up in the tragic events of World War II.

I wrote about this on June 30, but forgot to note that the only condition is that visitors will need to register (free) to access the content.

From now through July 19, visit the Holocaust Collection microsite.

Footnote will also be presenting and exhibiting at JGSLA 2010. Stop by their booth in the vendor room to say hello and thank them for making the collection available.

Have you found other valuable records on Footnote.com? Do let them know. Feedback is always welcomed.

Food: 'Jewish' in America?

[My traveling schedule has forced me to cut back a bit on posting -

everyone needs a few days to kick back.

Here's a post of a few weeks ago - but still delicious -

that was languishing in draft format]

American Jews are mostly familiar with Ashkenazi-based food products, both in supermarkets and at home. Have you ever looked at the shelves in a large Middle Eastern market?

When I'm in northern California, a favorite store is the Rose Market in Mountain View, a well-stocked bazaar of exotic Persian foodstuffs and kitchen essentials. If they don't carry a desired Persian product, it's likely not available anywhere!

Today I arrived in Los Angeles from Seattle. My schedule is tight with the 30th IAJGS International Conference of Jewish Genealogy starting on Sunday, but I'm still hoping for a chelo kabab meal at one of the great Persian restaurants here.

Attesting to the influence of the Los Angeles Persian Jewish community - sometimes called Irangeles or Tehrangeles - are the many kosher-certified products, from exotic ice cream specialties, baked goods, canned foods, dairy items and much more. These products are available across the US, wherever there are Persian or Middle Eastern shops.

It's a far cry from Eastern European gefilte fish to Persian faloudeh (a frozen rosewater-rice stick confection that's both delicious and safe for the lactose-intolerant!). Frozen confections - from little ice cream sandwiches encased in wafers, to large containers of exotic items such as creamy saffron pistachio or rosewater ice - bear the names of Golnazar or Mashti Malone's and others.

US supermarket yoghurt is too watery to the Middle Eastern palate. If you're a yoghurt aficionado, try some Persian mast (yoghurt) - I recommend the thick Ab Ali brand - perfect for making various summer salads with spinach (borani-esfanaj) or other vegetables. Ab Ali comes out of the container looking like thick stiffly beaten whipped cream. For those who want an even thicker type, there is mast-e-kiseh (literally "yoghurt in a bag," where the yoghurt is even further drained) which can be mistaken for cream cheese.

Another Ab Ali product is doogh, a carbonated tangy yoghurt drink, beloved by most Persians. It isn't to my taste, but watching someone shake it, carefully open it with a glass on top, is an experience. Those who love it claim it is very refreshing on very hot days.

Ab Ali, a natural spring, was a destination resort for picnics and barbecues outside of Teheran. My husband's family went there very often when he was young.

Persian breads are different and delicious. Instead of bagels, try breakfast-size nan-barbari (photo left). While the original version is a long flattish bread with ridges; the loaves are about 8" wide and may be more than 24" long, the breakfast size is about 4" by 8". Split it, toast it, spread with Persian-style panir (a feta-type cheese).


In Iran, the best panir(also sheep mik) was from Bulgaria and it came in large green or green-and-white cans. Here in the US, an excellent less salty, milder brand is Valbreso (sheep milk from France, photo right) is available in bulk and smaller portions. For an even more exotic taste, spread the Valbreso on your barbari and add some Persian halvah over the cheese. Yum! The combo of salty and sweet can't be beat!

Or, use a bit of butter on your barbari and add sour-cherry (al balu) jam. With a cup of fragrant steeped Earl Grey tea, this is heaven!

Feel like making barbari? Try this recipe.

When we visited Shiraz years ago, we sometimes stayed at the Park Hotel, with its lovely gardens. We enjoyed breakfast outdoors, amid the fragrant roses, with all the delightful essentials plus fresh watermelon juice. Who would want to forget those experiences?

Giving Jewish American food its due is a current National Yiddish Book Center exhibit presenting food-related artifacts reflecting the search for a balance between acculturation and identity.

The Jewish experience in America has been told in home kitchens and grocery shelves across the country. It represents the past, present and future from the early-20th century immigrant community through today and beyond. I don't know if the exhibit includes any references to the Jewish Persian influence, but that would be nice.

The Amherst, Massachusetts-based center offers signs, menus, ads and packaging from the collection of Rabbi Michael Strassfeld, and a Garden Cafeteria sign is on loan from the Museum at Eldridge Street. The exhibit runs through October 3.

Enjoy!

Massachusetts: Paper Bridge arts festival, July 11-15

The annual Paper Bridge Summer Arts Festival is hosted by the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.

This year's dates are July 11-15.

It's billed as "a dynamic arts festival exploring the full range of modern Jewish culture" for the whole family.

It includes concerts, films, performances, pre-performance talks, workshops and two exhibits.

For more information, click Paper Bridge Summer Arts Festival.